Why would people want to travel more with automated cars?

(Mis-)use of standard Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta: Results from interviews with users of Tesla's FSD Beta

“…Using Autopilot has contributed to (very) long-distance traveling due to safety and convenience benefits, which concurs with studies conducted for partially automated driving (Hardman et al, 2022). An increase in vehicle miles traveled has also been found for conditionally automated driving (Lehtonen et al, 2022). New safety risks may arise when the number of hours traveling by car with the system engaged exceeds drivers' mental and physical capacities to perform the driving task safely, i.e., respond to objects and events in the environment and take over requests.…”

“…Automated vehicles are expected to increase the productive use of travel time, which might encourage people to accept longer commutes (Singleton, 2019). Studies have revealed an expected increase in the vehicle miles traveled (Schoettle and Sivak, 2015;Harb et al, 2018;Hardman et al, 2019;Gurumurthy and Kockelman, 2020;Perrine et al, 2020;Lehtonen et al, 2022). Other studies have found no increase in the vehicle miles traveled (Zmud et al, 2016), and others provided evidence for both an increase and decrease in the vehicle miles traveled due to using automated vehicles (Childress et al, 2015;Wadud et al, 2016).…”

Letter to the Editor: Update on Experiences of a Driver with Vision Impairment When Using a Tesla Car - Full Self-Driving (Beta) in City Driving

“…He reported fewer self-imposed driving restrictions and less stress when driving, and he felt much more comfortable and confident when driving long distances, in the city and at night. The patient in this study, like normally sighted drivers who used partially and conditionally automated driving systems in prior studies, [3][4][5] reported an increased frequency of long-distance trips after using Tesla Autopilot and changes in route choice after using the FSD Beta system. Drivers, in general, are more willing to engage in Identifies stop signs and traffic lights and automatically slows the car to a stop on approach to a red light or stop sign, with the active supervision of the driver Autosteer on City Streets (Beta) leisure driving activities and fulfill unmet travel needs owing to the ease of travel provided by the automated system and to gain experience and explore the system's usefulness.…”

“…The patient in this study, like normally sighted drivers who used partially and conditionally automated driving systems in prior studies, 3–5 reported an increased frequency of long-distance trips after using Tesla Autopilot and changes in route choice after using the FSD Beta system. Drivers, in general, are more willing to engage in leisure driving activities and fulfill unmet travel needs owing to the ease of travel provided by the automated system and to gain experience and explore the system's usefulness 3,5 . Furthermore, drivers with vision impairments can now drive in situations previously inaccessible to them, leading to increased driving exposure alongside normally sighted drivers.…”

“…Drivers, in general, are more willing to engage in Identifies stop signs and traffic lights and automatically slows the car to a stop on approach to a red light or stop sign, with the active supervision of the driver Autosteer on City Streets (Beta) leisure driving activities and fulfill unmet travel needs owing to the ease of travel provided by the automated system and to gain experience and explore the system's usefulness. 3,5 Furthermore, drivers with vision impairments can now drive in situations previously inaccessible to them, leading to increased driving exposure alongside normally sighted drivers. However, extended travel time in more diverse driving situations with the system may lead to new safety risks for drivers with vision impairments.…”